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Beech Grove presents multi-year safety plan and attendance push as district attendance rises
Summary
District safety coordinator Chad Mann reviewed ALICE training, school reunification plans, SRO classroom lessons and a new attendance-data push that officials say raised corporation attendance from 89.79% in 2021 to 92.48% as of March 5, 2025.
Dr. Laura Hammock, superintendent of Beech Grove City Schools, introduced a district update on safety and attendance at the March 11 board meeting, saying the work ties directly to student outcomes. "If we can foster a safe academic space for our kids, we believe that will increase in attendance and then ultimately lead to some greater outcomes," she said.
The presentation by Chad Mann, the district's state testing coordinator and safe schools specialist, outlined steps taken since 2021 to strengthen school safety and staff capacity. Mann said, "Every school is now practicing rally point drills" and described detailed reunification plans, Skyward quick-access contact data for parents and a system of daily safety walks to check secured entrances.
Mann said the district expanded ALICE (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate) training so that each building now has personnel who can both present and lead refresher trainings. He described a crisis-response Google Chat used to notify principals and staff of emergent issues and noted a growing partnership with the Beech Grove Police Department (BGPD).
Mann described several operational steps already in place: assistant principals or their designees now perform a morning door check after buses and drop-offs; BGPD officers sometimes patrol perimeters during those checks; and school resource officers (SROs) are teaching age-appropriate lessons in buildings. Mann named officers who have delivered or will deliver lessons, including Officer Hartman, Officer Parker, Officer Reese and Lieutenant Rinks, and said lessons next year will be scheduled each semester.
On attendance, Mann said the district is implementing a state-mandated attendance policy and new state software to analyze patterns by day and week. He reported that the corporation's overall attendance was 89.79% in the 2021 school year and had risen to 92.48% as of March 5, 2025. "I can tell you the assistant principals, their first goal is to get to the state average and then exceed the state average," he said.
Mann described specific attendance tactics: a common set of warning letters (4-, 7-, 10- and 18-day templates) across K–12; targeted home visits and coordination with the Marion County prosecutor's office to determine when to refer cases or request an SRO visit; and plans for early intervention beginning in July and August to identify at-risk students before the school year starts.
The presentation closed with next steps Mann said the district will pursue: continued ALICE refreshers for staff and students, expanded SRO classroom engagement (one lesson per semester), ongoing safety walks logged into a shared Google Sheet for action-tracking, deeper family outreach, and incentive programs designed to raise daily attendance rates.
Board members praised the work and had no formal vote on the presentation. Mann repeatedly credited assistant principals as the primary implementers of the initiatives.
